although the hands of the station clock pointed to several minutes past nine, it was still apparently early evening when the train drew up at the platform of market blandings and discharged its distinguished passengers. the sun, taken in as usual by the never-failing practical joke of the daylight saving act, had only just set, and a golden afterglow lingered on the fields as the car which had met the train purred over the two miles of country road that separated the little[p. 127] town from the castle. as they passed in between the great stone gate-posts and shot up the winding drive, the soft murmur of the engines seemed to deepen rather than break the soothing stillness. the air was fragrant with indescribable english scents. somewhere in the distance sheep-bells tinkled; rabbits, waggling white tails, bolted across the path; and once a herd of agitated deer made a brief appearance among the trees. the only thing that disturbed the magic hush was the fluting voice of lord emsworth, on whom the spectacle of his beloved property had acted as an immediate stimulant. unlike his son freddie, who sat silent in his corner wrestling with his hopes and fears, lord emsworth had plunged into a perfect niagara of speech the moment the car entered the park. in a high tenor voice, and with wide, excited gestures, he pointed out to psmith oaks with a history and rhododendrons with a past: his conversation as they drew near the castle and came in sight of the flower-beds taking on an almost lyrical note and becoming a sort of anthem of gladness, through which, like some theme in the minor, ran a series of opprobrious observations on the subject of angus mcallister.
beach, the butler, solicitously scooping them out of the car at the front door, announced that her ladyship and miss peavey were taking their after-dinner coffee in the arbour by the bowling-green; and presently psmith, conducted by his lordship, found himself shaking hands with a strikingly handsome woman in whom, though her manner was friendliness itself, he could detect a marked suggestion of the formidable. ?sthetically, he admired lady constance’s appearance, but he could not conceal from himself that in the peculiar circumstances he would have preferred something rather more fragile and drooping. lady constance[p. 128] conveyed the impression that anybody who had the choice between stealing anything from her and stirring up a nest of hornets with a short walking-stick would do well to choose the hornets.
“how do you do, mr. mctodd?” said lady constance with great amiability. “i am so glad you were able to come after all.”
psmith wondered what she meant by “after all,” but there were so many things about his present situation calculated to tax the mind that he had no desire to probe slight verbal ambiguities. he shook her hand and replied that it was very kind of her to say so.
“we are quite a small party at present,” continued lady constance, “but we are expecting a number of people quite soon. for the moment aileen and you are our only guests. oh, i am sorry, i should have . . . miss peavey, mr. mctodd.”
the slim and willowy female who during this brief conversation had been waiting in an attitude of suspended animation, gazing at psmith with large, wistful eyes, stepped forward. she clasped psmith’s hand in hers, held it, and in a low, soft voice, like thick cream made audible, uttered one reverent word.
“ma?tre!”
“i beg your pardon?” said psmith. a young man capable of bearing himself with calm and dignity in most circumstances, however trying, he found his poise wobbling under the impact of miss aileen peavey.
miss peavey often had this effect on the less soulful type of man, especially in the mornings, when such men are not at their strongest and best. when she came into the breakfast-room of a country house, brave men who had been up a bit late the night before quailed and tried to hide behind newspapers. she was the sort of woman who tells a man who is propping his[p. 129] eyes open with his fingers and endeavouring to correct a headache with strong tea, that she was up at six watching the dew fade off the grass, and didn’t he think that those wisps of morning mist were the elves’ bridal-veils. she had large, fine, melancholy eyes, and was apt to droop dreamily.
“master!” said miss peavey, obligingly translating.
there did not seem to be any immediate come-back to a remark like this, so psmith contented himself with beaming genially at her through his monocle: and miss peavey came to bat again.
“how wonderful that you were able to come—after all!”
again this “after all” motive creeping into the theme. . . .
“you know miss peavey’s work, of course?” said lady constance, smiling pleasantly on her two celebrities.
“who does not?” said psmith courteously.
“oh, do you?” said miss peavey, gratification causing her slender body to perform a sort of ladylike shimmy down its whole length. “i scarcely hoped that you would know my name. my canadian sales have not been large.”
“quite large enough,” said psmith. “i mean, of course,” he added with a paternal smile, “that, while your delicate art may not have a universal appeal in a young country, it is intensely appreciated by a small and select body of the intelligentsia.”
and if that was not the stuff to give them, he reflected with not a little complacency, he was dashed.
“your own wonderful poems,” replied miss peavey, “are, of course, known the whole world over. oh, mr. mctodd, you can hardly appreciate how i feel, meeting you. it is like the realisation of some golden dream of childhood. it is like . . .”
here the hon. freddie threepwood remarked[p. 130] suddenly that he was going to pop into the house for a whisky and soda. as he had not previously spoken, his observation had something of the effect of a voice from the tomb. the daylight was ebbing fast now, and in the shadows he had contrived to pass out of sight as well as out of mind. miss peavey started like an abruptly awakened somnambulist, and psmith was at last able to release his hand, which he had begun to look on as gone beyond his control for ever. until this fortunate interruption there had seemed no reason why miss peavey should not have continued to hold it till bedtime.
freddie’s departure had the effect of breaking a spell. lord emsworth, who had been standing perfectly still with vacant eyes, like a dog listening to a noise a long way off, came to life with a jerk.
“i’m going to have a look at my flowers,” he announced.
“don’t be silly, clarence,” said his sister. “it’s much too dark to see flowers.”
“i could smell ’em,” retorted his lordship argumentatively.
it seemed as if the party must break up, for already his lordship had begun to potter off, when a new-comer arrived to solidify it again.
“ah, baxter, my dear fellow,” said lord emsworth. “here we are, you see.”
“mr. baxter,” said lady constance, “i want you to meet mr. mctodd.”
“mr. mctodd!” said the new arrival, on a note of surprise.
“yes, he found himself able to come after all.”
“ah!” said the efficient baxter.
it occurred to psmith as a passing thought, to which he gave no more than a momentary attention, that[p. 131] this spectacled and capable-looking man was gazing at him, as they shook hands, with a curious intensity. but possibly, he reflected, this was merely a species of optical illusion due to the other’s spectacles. baxter, staring through his spectacles, often gave people the impression of possessing an eye that could pierce six inches of harveyised steel and stick out on the other side. having registered in his consciousness the fact that he had been stared at keenly by this stranger, psmith thought no more of the matter.
in thus lightly dismissing the baxterian stare, psmith had acted injudiciously. he should have examined it more closely and made an effort to analyse it, for it was by no means without its message. it was a stare of suspicion. vague suspicion as yet, but nevertheless suspicion. rupert baxter was one of those men whose chief characteristic is a disposition to suspect their fellows. he did not suspect them of this or that definite crime: he simply suspected them. he had not yet definitely accused psmith in his mind of any specific tort or malfeasance. he merely had a nebulous feeling that he would bear watching.
miss peavey now fluttered again into the centre of things. on the arrival of baxter she had withdrawn for a moment into the background, but she was not the woman to stay there long. she came forward holding out a small oblong book, which, with a languishing firmness, she pressed into psmith’s hands.
“could i persuade you, mr. mctodd,” said miss peavey pleadingly, “to write some little thought in my autograph-book and sign it? i have a fountain-pen.”
light flooded the arbour. the efficient baxter, who knew where everything was, had found and pressed the switch. he did this not so much to oblige[p. 132] miss peavey as to enable him to obtain a clearer view of the visitor. with each minute that passed the efficient baxter was finding himself more and more doubtful in his mind about this visitor.
“there!” said miss peavey, welcoming the illumination.
psmith tapped his chin thoughtfully with the fountain-pen. he felt that he should have foreseen this emergency earlier. if ever there was a woman who was bound to have an autograph-book, that woman was miss peavey.
“just some little thought . . .”
psmith hesitated no longer. in a firm hand he wrote the words “across the pale parabola of joy . . .” added an unfaltering “ralston mctodd,” and handed the book back.
“how strange,” sighed miss peavey.
“may i look?” said baxter, moving quickly to her side.
“how strange!” repeated miss peavey. “to think that you should have chosen that line! there are several of your more mystic passages that i meant to ask you to explain, but particularly ‘across the pale parabola of joy’ . . .”
“you find it difficult to understand?”
“a little, i confess.”
“well, well,” said psmith indulgently, “perhaps i did put a bit of top-spin on that one.”
“i beg your pardon?”
“i say, perhaps it is a little obscure. we must have a long chat about it—later on.”
“why not now?” demanded the efficient baxter, flashing his spectacles.
“i am rather tired,” said psmith with gentle reproach, “after my journey. fatigued. we artists . . .”
“of course,” said miss peavey, with an indignant[p. 133] glance at the secretary. “mr. baxter does not understand the sensitive poetic temperament.”
“a bit unspiritual, eh?” said psmith tolerantly. “a trifle earthy? so i thought, so i thought. one of these strong, hard men of affairs, i shouldn’t wonder.”
“shall we go and find lord emsworth, mr. mctodd?” said miss peavey, dismissing the fermenting baxter with a scornful look. “he wandered off just now. i suppose he is among his flowers. flowers are very beautiful by night.”
“indeed, yes,” said psmith. “and also by day. when i am surrounded by flowers, a sort of divine peace floods over me, and the rough, harsh world seems far away. i feel soothed, tranquil. i sometimes think, miss peavey, that flowers must be the souls of little children who have died in their innocence.”
“what a beautiful thought, mr. mctodd!” exclaimed miss peavey rapturously.
“yes,” agreed psmith. “don’t pinch it. it’s copyright.”
the darkness swallowed them up. lady constance turned to the efficient baxter, who was brooding with furrowed brow.
“charming, is he not?”
“i beg your pardon?”
“i said i thought mr. mctodd was charming.”
“oh, quite.”
“completely unspoiled.”
“oh, decidedly.”
“i am so glad that he was able to come after all. that telegram he sent this afternoon cancelling his visit seemed so curt and final.”
“so i thought it.”
“almost as if he had taken offence at something and decided to have nothing to do with us.”
[p. 134]“quite.”
lady constance shivered delicately. a cool breeze had sprung up. she drew her wrap more closely about her shapely shoulders, and began to walk to the house. baxter did not accompany her. the moment she had gone he switched off the light and sat down, chin in hand. that massive brain was working hard.
